ABSTRACT
Releasing on a recognized label may mean different symbolic weight and visibility than a self-released work of an unknown artist. There are dos and donts when it comes to value-laden and style-oriented action. Balancing the aspects constitutes the symbolic economy in the broadest sense. Questions of symbolic economy are about meaning, feeling, judgment of taste and value-commitments understood as aesthetic and social choices made for their own sake. Diversifying one's output or portfolio is fine but only up to a point, and such an approach needs a symbolic leitmotif of sorts, or it needs to be scaffolded around stylistic pillars and allied with specific actors. The popularity of such comparative discourses of worth attests to the existence of the impulse to weigh artworks and to channel social attention along the lines of merit, fun and symbolic influence. For an independent musician, the attention-seeking process is fraught with symbolic pitfalls and risks.
